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To: Jim Bishop who wrote (85455)	5/30/2001 2:16:45 PM
From: john	Respond to of 150070

Good for Bill and Melinda (COMTEX) B: Gates Helps With Meningitis Vaccine B: Gates Helps With Meningitis Vaccine WASHINGTON, May 30, 2001 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The foundation created by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is donating $70 million to combat meningitis epidemics in Africa that have killed more than 100,000 people since the late 1980s. The grant pays for the creation of the Meningitis Vaccine Project, an alliance of public and private groups including the World Health Organization. The project wants to develop and distribute a vaccine against one type of the disease that strikes frequently in a broad "meningitis belt" of nearly 20 African countries. "It is a terrible and devastating disease and the epidemics are increasing both in frequency and magnitude," Patty Stonesifer, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said Wednesday. She said that a current vaccine exists, but it has limited effectiveness and doesn't provide long-term protection. Meningitis, an infection of the membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord, often surfaces in Africa during annual dry seasons. Without treatment, nearly half of those infected die and even with antibiotics a quarter of the survivors suffer problems including brain damage, hearing loss and paralysis. Among infected children, one in 10 die even when treated. An outbreak now sweeping across Africa has killed more than 3,500 people this year, according to the International Red Cross. The epidemics flare up every couple of years but the intervals have become shorter during the past two decades. "Unlike some of our global health problems where the solution is distant and somewhat uncertain, we know that the science is there for developing a vaccine," said Chris Elias, president of the Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, part of the 10-year vaccine project. "The kind of meningitis that exists in that meningitis belt doesn't exist in the industrialized world, so there's been little market incentive for pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines," he said. "This grant will provide the incentive that has been missing and may ultimately become a model for other vaccines or drugs tailor-made for the poorest countries." Elias said the vaccine project should be able to produce a new vaccine within five years using existing technology. The new vaccine could provide immunity in infants, last longer and halt the spread of the disease, derailing epidemics before they begin. Gates has previously pledged $126 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He is also donating $750 million over five years to boost global immunization efforts to try to save the lives of the 3 million children a year who die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Over the last two years, the Gates Foundation has provided $1.5 billion for global health, including $236 million for U.N. programs involving the U.N. Population Fund, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and others. --- On the Net: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: gatesfoundation.org World Health Organization Meningitis site: who.int By DAVID HO Associated Press Writer Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved -0-